I assumed it meant using a separate device or software on the side

That’s what it is. I remember actually sideloading apps to my BlackBerry 10 devices (Z10 and Z30) (though it really wasn’t that long ago not to remember it…) using a PC with a Chrome based browser (though it worked on Firefox too with some minor fiddling) to push and install .bar files to the phone. That is what sideloading to me.

Now this term changed, so everything you install from a different source than the built-in appstore is called sideloading, which is ridiculous IMO.

Unrelated, but I had something relatively similar once with my Inspiron 7520 laptop. In theory, that machine only supports 8GB of RAM, but technically I could put 16 into it and worked fine. Later I upgraded to a different machine and put this laptop aside, but sometimes I set it up if I go to friends place and need a PC to do some light multiplayer lan parties or such.

For a while, the laptop has a strange locking up issue when I booted 64 bit OSs. Or I don’t know, after my testings, it seemed that booting a 64 bit OS would crash my machine sooner or later. Maybe even right after boot, maybe after when I logged in or used it for some time. Booting into Memtest also locked up eventually the laptop (but running the 32 bit version of Memtest didn’t). Pulling out either memory stick (2x8GB) solved the issue, it worked with both sticks on both slots, if I used only one. The two sticks together on the other hand made my machine crash after boot, no matter which stick went to which slot.

Difference is that every OS did this, not just Debian, though Windows seemed to keep up longer in this case, but it also crashed on me.

Now I don’t have this problem. It just… disappeared after not using the laptop for a while again.

So… if it’s not software issue, maybe try to reseat your RAM sticks. Or use some compressed air to clean up the slots, maybe check the contacts of the sticks and clean them with some isopropyl and a soft brush.

It also can be storage issue, if your Windows install works fine on a different drive. Once I had an Ubuntu installed to the same laptop I mentioned and its HDD was failing hard, but the system kept up for a while, just had some really weird issues popping up here and there. But then eventually failed completely. Amongst the weird happenings, random freezes were also a thing with my bad HDD.

RTX5070 works almost straight out from the box on Kubuntu stable. Had to try few of the drivers from the built-in utility to find which worked, but the latest version and open one did the trick. So no, it wasn’t hard to get it working properly :)

My gf recently built a PC for herself and just did moved her from Windows to Kubuntu stable as well. I was kinda surprised, she was the one who came to me and told me that she doesn’t want Windows 11 so she’s open to try out Linux. I changed to Linux (Debian) myself for a year and a half and she probably noticed that I still play my games and use it the very same way I did with Windows. I told her that most of the apps has alternatives, running games isn’t a big a deal anymore and if she really really need to run Windows software, there’s a great chance she can. (But this didn’t occured).

My only concern was full Huion Kamvas support and crativity apps, 2D drawing and all that… but she’s open to use and learn Krita, it seems she likes it. But if that won’t work out, my small research told me that ClipStudio Paint (the one she used on Windows) works well with Wine. The Huion tablet just worked out of the box, with pressure sensitivity and all that jazz. (Buttons don’t work though, but Huion has official Linux drivers which supposed to make them work, so that’s awesome.)

unfortunately, radontop doesn’t support relatively old cards. I get this error. (And the github page states that >R600 will work)

Unknown Radeon card. <= R500 won't work, new cards might.

Also, my AMD CPU has a integrated GPU too, radeontop just doesn’t know about it.

The GPU works on my system tho, just radeontop doesn’t detect/support them. Oh well.

and even then, for me at least, the dialog that pops up is broken and lot of times the “Allow” button literally does nothing

With Termux on Android, it’s possible to install Debian in a proot environment.

More about this here: https://github.com/termux/proot-distro

I guess using this envirinment, it’s possible to set up your server to your needs.

One thing I don’t know is how to autostart Termux at boot, but there must be a way, “worst-case” a Tasker routine can do it. Also, another thing to considerate with this setup is Android’s memory management and to detect if your proot distro gets killed. But then again, maybe Tasker is good for that, too.

Good thing with this proot-distro thing is that it’s really easy and straightforward to set up, and basically you have a full Linux environment in your pocket. There are limitations, of course.

As for installing/flashing full Debian on an Android phone, let’s say it’s not possible. Your closest best bet would be Ubuntu Touch on a supported device.

I’m the other way around. I switched to Debian on my main around a year ago now and I’m like “oh, this game works, and this game works too, oh and that works as well, wow!”. Honestly, any game I threw at Debian, it just… worked. Granted, I don’t play very recent games and most of them either single player or does not have any serious anti cheat measures. Even VR works with ALVR and Steam VR, wirelessly on my (or rather my homie’s, just borrowed) Quest 2.

And not just games, a lot of Windows software just works with Wine.

So, before the change, I thought I need or use Windows exclusive software, and I did, but all of them are now have decent alternatives. Maybe except for Notepad++. (I use Kate and KWrite, but… I really don’t like those softwares, but they get the job done the same way np++ did)

So, I’m really surprised how well this past 1 year went without any issue.

But that’s kinda valid that if something doesn’t run, then people won’t change. You are talking about people who doesn’t care libre/FOSS software and all that jazz, they won’t change if it’s just simply worse.

I settled with Plasma. It has its fair share of issues, mostly minor things compared to coming from Windows and its environment. But you really can customize it the way you want and it’s relatively comfortable, so I’m fine with it. I still miss the old KDE3, but I’m not that hardcore to use Trinity. Not even sure how’s Trinity nowadays.

Gnome 3 is just not my world, at all… at least, for desktop. I kinda use it on my htpc if I need an environment. That, or Xfce. I can imagine on a palmtop pc or other portable device that runs Linux, either with or without a touchscreen Gnome could be a pretty decent choice. Also, I’m sure I could/would get used to it if there’s nothing else, but there are other options so I’m not going to sit down and get to (re)know Gnome, tho it’s not like I’m against it.

best alternative would be a forum + voice calls + dms IMO

I’m all for it tho I have no idea how to grab the folk’s attention

You give them too much credit. It’s just shitty, that’s it.

Discord is pretty much broken on all platform. It always was. There’s just no real alternative unfortunately.

There is a setting somewhere IIRC (or at least there was) where you can separate file browser processes from the “main” explorer.exe process so you can kill individual Explorer windows but not the whole environment.

No, I’m not recommending a distro for you

Don’t worry, everyone else does

my experience is that through network, it’s just flawless. I turned on my printer and sure there it was. (though this feature just became a huge issue recently :P)

Yeah, sure, a really nice thing.

They should open-source it, as they did with Calculator.

welp, it’s another story how useful is this picture 😄, it just came to my mind and brought me some nostalgia in the meantime towards the artist. (yeah, saying artist in this case is strange, but otherwise who made this is a digital artist, or was, idk how active still)

reminded me of this picture

I like nano tho it has some strange shortcuts